VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has deposed an anti-abortion American priest, Frank Pavone, over what he said were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop who repeatedly told him to stop his partisan activism for Donald Trump.
A letter to American bishops from the Vatican’s ambassador to the US, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, received on Sunday said the decision against Pavone, who heads the anti-abortion group Priests for Life, had been made on 9 November and that there was no decision. possibility of appeal.
Pavone has been at odds with the bishop of Amarillo, Texas, for more than a decade over his pro-life and partisan political activities that culminated in 2016 when he placed an aborted fetus on an altar and posted a video on two social media sites. The video was accompanied by a post that said Hillary Clinton and the Democratic platform would allow abortion to continue and that Trump and the Republican platform wanted to protect unborn children.
Even before then, Pavone successfully appealed the 2011 restrictions on his ministry that Amarillo Bishop Patrick Zurek had placed on him.
Pavone remained a staunch supporter of Trump and in 2020 disputed the outcome of the election won by Joe Biden. Before the election, the Diocese of Amarillo denounced Pavone’s use of social media for political purposes, distanced the diocese from him and said his positions were inconsistent with Catholic teaching.
Pavone moved from Amarillo and was allowed to move to Colorado Springs, Colorado. His Twitter handle still shows him wearing a “MAGA” hat with a background photo of former President Trump, who is praised by many conservatives for his Supreme Court nominees who helped overturn the constitutional right to ‘abortion in the United States.
In a tweet Sunday, Pavone appeared defiant, comparing his fate to that of the unborn.
“So in all professions, including the priesthood, if you stand up for the #unborn, you will be treated like them! The only difference is that when we ‘abort’ we keep talking, loud and clear.”
He later appeared in a social media video wearing a black leather biker jacket over a priestly collar with a fake backdrop of St. Peter’s Basilica vowing that the “war” on abortion would continue and denouncing the ” cancellation culture” of the church that he. he said it had haunted him for decades.
In a statement on his Priest For Life website, he said his laicization was “the result of an abusive process” and that he was considering unspecified legal action against unnamed US bishops.
Defrocking was immediately denounced by his supporters, including the Bishop of Tyler, Texas, Joseph Strickland, who referred to US President Joe Biden’s support for abortion rights as “evil”.
“The blasphemy is that this holy priest is canceled while an evil president promotes the denial of the truth and the killing of the unborn at every moment, the officials of the Vatican promote immorality and the denial of the deposit of faith and the priests promote gender confusion devastating lives…” Strickland tweeted.
In his letter, Pierre cited information from the Congregation for the Clergy that Pavone had been laicized — he can no longer present himself as a priest — after being found guilty in a canonical procedure “of blasphemous communications on social networks and persistent disobedience of the law. instructions from his diocesan bishop”. The letter was first reported by the Catholic News Agency.
The statement says Pavone was given “ample opportunities to defend himself” as well as submit to his bishop. “It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions.”
The statement concluded that because Priests for Life is not a Catholic organization, the group would have to determine whether it could continue its role “as a lay person.”
Laicization, or being reduced to the lay state, is one of the harshest sanctions in canon law for priests.